Following an invitation from Prince James of Albany (the exiled Stewart heir of the Kings of Scotland), our hero Gabriel Knight, the "Shadow Hunter", starts his new adventure. The Prince is worried about his baby son who is menaced by an old family curse. Everything hints at vampires. Knight decides to guard the boy, but on the very next night the child is carried off by two mysterious guys. The Shadow Hunter follows them to the sleepy little village of Rennes-le-Château in the South of France.

This short prologue serves to both introduce you to the gloomy atmosphere and give you an overview of the impending dangers that will be faced by our hero (it is also included as a comic book in the box). You
notice right away that this is far more than a kidnapping. Mysteries about old monks, fantastic treasures and the Holy Grail are to be solved. And of course it wouldn't surprise you if our hero has to save the world from destruction.

The game is on 3 CDs, divided into different parts, and you can only go on to the next section if you have completely solved the previous one. So the game has a linear plot. You get points for every successful action of the hero, just like you did in Sierra's Larry. The game is divided into rooms and when you change rooms you have to put up with loading, which is frustrating. The camera angle is freely movable by the player (with the arrow-keys) within the rooms, so you can see every corner of the room without moving. You can access the inventory with two mouse clicks or one key. Unfortunately, using an item in the inventory is complicated: you always have to open the menu, take the item out of the inventory, leave the inventory, and only then can the item be used. It goes without saying that you may only take out one(!) item at a time. In other respects, gameplay is normal: the cursor lights up if you move it over an item which can be interacted with, and a mouse click is all it takes to initiate action.

The game's graphics are lovingly designed and drawn, but unfortunately the quality does suffer at times, becoming somewhat blurred when the camera angle changes. The figures' edges are a bit jagged and pixelated and the hands seem clumsy. However the figures' movements are a feast for the eyes: they scratch their heads, make gestures, lift their eyebrows, etc...even the mouths move according to the speech. And let's talk about the sound: both the background sounds and the music are fantastic and create just the right atmosphere in every scene.

The story is very complex and you have to solve a lot of puzzles. Above all, Sierra attaches great importance to the conversations and that is where you often discover new aspects of the story or learn things to help you solve the mystery. To add to the fun you can also direct Gabriel's colleague, Grace, during the course of the game. And you have the use of a "laptop computer" (with a Shadow-Hunter-Information-Service database) which can be used to analyze items and solve puzzles....almost like you were on a real shadow hunt.

There is also a
fingerprint set that you have to become familiar with. A little tip: You have to put black color on the brush and then scroll with the left mouse button over the item you want to examine until you hear Gabriel's voice. Then you put the brush away, take a piece of tape and click it on the now visible fingerprint. Then you click the tape on the white paper bag to the left and the fingerprint is ready.

This game
has wonderful graphics, outstanding sound, and long, good dialogues. After the idle introductory prologue, you are quickly caught up in a real game frenzy due to the animation of the characters and the beautiful sound!